A Sword Mirrors It's Owner
by GenoXCaust
Summary: Murderer? Lover? Woman? Man? Champion? Legend? Nothing? Darkness? Salvation? Destruction? These are all things that we think of, things that we strive for or things that we are called, labeled, or things we have become. But, what happens when we are broken? What happens when we have fallen?
1. A Broken Blade

To start, I'd like to thank everybody in advance for reading this. This is my first venture onto the world of fanfiction since I was 13 years old, and I hope to better my writing and presentation through this story. Thank you, and enjoy.

My name, is… Riven. I'm twenty six years old, and I'm a murderer, a betrayer, fallen warrior, a broken swordswoman.. If you're reading this, then… That means that I've either peacefully passed away, free of my sins, a redeemed warrior. Or, that I've fallen, succumbed to this darkness inside of me, unable to reach salvation.

"No, no I can't write that… Nobody's going to read this nonsense. Foolish." Riven sputtered as she tore the page out of her empty booklet and threw the paper into the fire. She then groaned as she moved her frozen, aching limbs. The cold weather of Ionia was not forgiving of her injuries. Just weeks ago, she had escaped from the painful cloud of poison left by Singed, the same cloud she had suffered through with her troops, who ultimately died like helpless rats to the acid that had filled their lungs. She was… "lucky.." she mumbled to herself, her train of thought lingering on the laughter she heard as Singed had littered the battlefield with gas. How foolish she was, to believe such a twisted sense of strength could be real.

She looked down at her sword; "The pride of Noxus" was its official name, a splendid combination of Noxian Steel and raw magical power. Imbued into the sword, were runes that glowed like the moon, elegant in their nature, they held more power than any general in Demacia, or Noxus. Riven herself could not even begin to tap into the full strength of the magic in her sword, despite having trained with it for years. So many memories, people she had killed, people she cared for, her comrades, her family all of it was gone because of her pursuit for greatness. Riven was angry, confused, regretful, and hateful of herself, of her sword, of her life.  
Her brilliant crimson eyes scanned over the blade, its edge glowing red in the firelight, and she swallowed hard. "I hate you." She mumbled, and then again "I Hate You." With more ferocity, more intent, more painful memories that swallowed her mind and clouded her every waking moment "I HATE YOU!" she screamed, finally, resignation in her voice. Her emotions swirled and she rose from her spot on the ground, took her sword, and without a single movement of hesitation she turned towards a large nearby rock, easily 3 times her size, and swung her sword down on its flat side with all of her might ignoring the pain in her arms, in her lungs, in every part of her body as she screamed "I HATE YOU!".

There was a silence that hung in the air for some time, before a crack shattered it. A green and yellow light sprung up from the tree line and the ground shook for a moment, brief, but anybody nearby was alerted to the sudden power filling the air, the sharpness of its feeling and the permeation of it. Birds and other animals scattered from the small blast zone, and in its wake stood riven, sobbing her sword as broken as her spirit. She let out wail upon wail, her despair and agony like a knife in the air. Her sword was crumbling; the broken pieces of it disappearing like sand in the wind. Riven did not care, she believed then, that she never would care about anything ever again. Her life was as broken as the blade in her hand, now short, blunt, cracked and nearly gone. A shadow of its former glory but a moment before, she wanted this. She wanted every second of this, this broken sword and every feeling it brought to her, every life she had reaped with it, every ounce of her power now but a shadow of its former self.

Off in the distance, the shockwave reached a similarly broken soul, lost in his own way, the wind brought him much comfort, but with it the feeling of sorrow, grief, loss. Something that to him, was all too familiar. He looked up, his dark eyes looking at the tree line as it shook with pale dim greens and yellows from Riven's broken sword. A feeling that reached him sent shivers up his spine. He somehow felt as if he knew what was coming.

End.


	2. A Wish For Death

Hello, its Riven here again. I was writing to you last night but I ended up breaking my sword.  
I feel so lost right now, I wish someone was here to guide me.

Riven looked forlornly at the pages of her booklet. Sadly, this was going to be the only thing that ever offered her comfort. The night before she had dealt with so many emotions, now, she simply felt empty, devoid of anything. She was burnt out, exhausted, and worst of all she had gotten very little sleep since her outburst. She took little time in packing up her things that night, and exiting the scene of her shattering. Riven did not bother to try to hide her tracks, as she was readily willing to accept her demise currently, in fact, if the dame Katarina showed up to slide her elegant blade in between Riven's ribcage, she doubt she would protest.

The sunlight was very harsh, though Riven thought that if she had perhaps been born anywhere but Noxus, that she might find it enjoyable to bask in such clean sunlight. Her thoughts traveled to the place she was born, a filthy hole in the wall sort of place, she was born and raised by her mother, who was quick to drill into her how the world worked there. Riven could clearly make out every detail of that tiny house, and an ache in her heart pinged her, how she missed that filthy, small, worthless hole in the wall home. Everything was so much simpler there.

She could not linger on such thoughts, not now. Riven sensed and heard many people approaching her now, and one was very familiar. "Darius… What brings you here?" The greatest and most powerful Noxian leader in the last century stepped out to meet her, his eyes burning like a fire. He wanted her dead. "You know why I am here, deserter." He did not give her the dignity of a name. She was nothing to her former leader now. "Lay down like the filthy dog you are, and I will grant you the mercy of a quick death. " His voice was cold, like ice, but rough like sandpaper against her ears and Riven took a breath, and then shut her eyes. "Do as you will, Leader"

Darius laughed once, and then raised his massive axe. The men and women gathered were his personal hand-picked battalion of ten magnificent soldiers, Riven knew if she resisted she would fall here no matter what. As Darius swung his axe, nicknamed the "Noxian Guillotine" time slowed, and she opened her eyes and a fleeting feeling entered her body, it screamed, and thrashed as if a it was a separate entity of its own. She suddenly reflexively raised her pitiful excuse for a sword now, and defiantly blocked her old leaders' death blow; a warriors reflex would not allow her to die here.  
Her eyes shot wide, and something she had not felt in many years entered her body, fear, true unbridled fear. Why had she done that? She simply wished to die, now she would endure much more pain and suffering. Darius looked at her, his expression shifting from mirth to annoyance, and then anger. "You dare to raise the weapon I had crafted for you against me, much less ruined?! YOU PITIFUL WORTHLESS FILTH RIVEN!" His muscles rippled as he swung his axe back, before swinging it like a bat at Riven, sending her flying into a nearby tree. She cried out from shock, and quickly got up. The others present simply stayed silent, waiting any false movement that would indicate harm to the head of Noxus, if she made one false move she would die.

'Die… I don't want to die!' such a thought raced through her mind as adrenalin pumped through her body, how could she deny such basic instincts? She kept her hand firmly on her sword, and ran at Darius. He turned, and whirled his giant axe at her, she barely had enough time to channel her chi energy to lessen the damage she took to her arm. Her massive shoulder bracer nearly cracked in half from the dulled force, if she had not done so he would have cleanly cut her in half. The blow sent her a ways away, and as he was recovering from that short exertion she dashed to him, sending chi to her feet to give her more speed she spun and slashed him across the chest once. This demonstration caused some in the crowd to instantly flinch towards her, deadly looks in their eyes, but they soon realized that her blade was so dull, it barely scratched his armor let alone him.

Darius looked down and began to laugh, his mirth echoing in the forest as Riven looked down at her blade, shocked, and defeated. She truly did not have anything left. "Ha…Hahahaha! You filth you cannot even scratch me anymore! You're a broken piece of trash, just like your mother was. Oh how I loved to hear her scream as I cut every last bit of her apart with my axe. She was nothing but a filthy whore you know? That's why you never had anything, you could never achieve greatness because you were born to such weakness and filth. "

Riven stood there, taking the brunt of his words, previously she had not known that her mother had died, she believed her to be alive, well, outside of Noxus, hidden from its vile, twisted sense of reality.  
But she knew now, she knew why she had not received letters any longer, or heard from her mother in months. It was not uncommon for her to go off the radar, but now she knew. Darius was not one to lie, especially about his kills. Her eyes became cloudy, and for the first time in her life, she wept, she wept in front of him, in front of the people she once called comrades in arms, her first true showing of weakness, her tears. But something also became strong inside of her, her rage, fueled her chi, creating a building power ready to burst, she did not notice at the time, as every bit of her emotions took over her, she looked frantically around, trying to see some lie in someone's faces, a sign of pity, of anything, of feeling. She received nothing. That's when she truly became broken.

Darius continued to laugh, and laugh, before abruptly stopping. He turned to her, seeing her weep, and began to run at her. He was ready to end this petty fight.

Riven was finished, she turned to him, and with her red eyes blazing like the depths of hell, she released her chi energy, calling on the full power of the remaining rune in her sword, and braced for his attack. He swung at her, expecting to cleave her in half, and instead found himself to be limbless. Darius's eyes went wide, with the sudden realization that his demise was at the hand of the very same filth he had mocked he stumbled, falling to his knees and looked at the blood pouring out of his stubs of arms. Riven had not only blocked his oncoming attack, but in a flashing flood of light, summoned the parts of her sword that she had destroyed not but last night.  
"A Broken blade is more than enough for the likes of _you_ Darius." She leaned close to him, his arms nothing but lifeless husks of blood and flesh, oozing on the ground now, and hissed her final words to him. "I wish you well in the depths of hell, My Leader." Riven swung her sword out in front of her, creating a chi slash that hit 6 of the 10 people that were running to defend Darius.

End


	3. The Blood Brothers

Riven's eyes blazed with her fury, as she slaughtered the remaining troop. With Darius slain they could do nothing against her. She had cleaved them in half with the energy from her blade as she slashed cleanly through Darius's chest plate. She looked down at the Noxian General, and her eyes held no mercy. She could see the light fading in his eyes as the top half of his limbless body was still functioning. She turned to the four remaining in the fleet and met a sharp blow to her shoulder, nearly cleaving it in half.

"Darius!" shouted a clean, annoying, yet horrified voice. His brother, Draven witnessed the full demise of his brother, his eyes wide and disbelieving. Riven staggered from the blow, her shoulder oozing blood from the massive gash. She struggled to lift her sword, and switched hands with it, she had decided it was this day that their wretched bloodline ended. She had always immensely disliked Draven.

Riven ran at him with renewed vigor, her sword in her offhand was clumsy and she stumbled a bit, enough for him to notice again. He turned to her and threw his second spinning axe at her. She raised her sword and blocked it, sending it flying off and into one of the other members of their remaining party that was trying to flank her from the side. She heard the sounds of a scream, followed by a sharp silence and flooded breath. She knew that man was dead.

Draven panicked, he had no weapon to speak of, now defenseless, he ran, but Riven was by no means slow, and easily caught up to him. She reached for him with her damaged arm and grasped him by the shirt, before plunging her sword into his back, shattering his spine and easily piercing his heard as it exited out the other side of his chest cavity. "You- bitch!" he sputtered, twisting and fruitlessly tried to grasp at her, as if trying to somehow further harm her.

"Burn in hell with your brother, Draven" Riven hissed out, her body was starting to protest her movement, and the wound over her shoulder was large, deep, and if not treated in minutes would surely kill her by the days end, if not cause her to lose her sword arm. She let go of Draven, turning to finish off the remaining two members of Darius's party, only to realize that they were not there any longer. 'Smart of them…' She thought.

Riven looked at the carnage she had wrought with her blade once more, and began to cry. Her tears were that of rage, that of herself, for becoming a murderer, why? She thought, why should she have to be like this, would this ever end? Or would she succumb to her Noxian instincts, the blood of a sadistic, evil country that flowed through her veins. She did not know, and she was wondering if she wanted to. She shook her head, and turned away from the bodies strewn across the ground, and limped away. Her body was bruised, several of her bones were broken, and her shoulder felt as if it was going to fall off of the bone at any moment. She needed to find someone to heal her, and fast, otherwise she would die.

Unbeknownst to her, Le Blanc let out a chuckle, having watched the whole scene. She was poised to strike, but did not. "I will let you live, dove, you've served me well." The witch kept her eyes on Riven but for a moment, before slipping back into the shadows of the forest to Noxus, now without a leader, was ripe for the picking.

Riven staggered through the trees, more and more of her energy draining away as she left a bloody trail in her wake. She was panting now, her sword now back to its broken, shattered state, dull, and merely a paperweight in her hand. She stopped, and looked around, dropping her blade she gathered enough dirt and leafs to make a small fire, and she started it with some matches she had found in a rucksack she picked up from one of the dead men. Reaching for her blade, she felt herself get lightheaded, and raised it over the fire. She took deep, slow breaths as the blade heated, becoming redder by the moment.

The next thing anybody heard in that forest was a loud shrill scream as Riven had taken her shoulder and pushed the gash edges together before pressing her red hot blade to her skin. The skin sizzled, and fused together under the heat, the blood bubbled and scabbed over, but she was not done, she put her sword in her right hand, putting it back over the fire, and waiting, holding her shoulder together with her left hand. Her eyes were strained as she swayed in her sitting position. She couldn't think properly, and took the blade off the fire, before raising it and pressing it again to the wound, she screamed again, but it was much less shrill and more of a loud groan. The nerve endings in her shoulder were gone, completely burnt off by the action of cauterizing her wound.

Riven leaned to the side, and puked, the muscles in her stomach seizing as she emptied the contents of her stomach, which were sparse to say the least. She had just enough energy left to curl up beside the fire, and pat it out with her sword. As she began to fade out of consciousness, her eyes picked up a blurred figure, but she dismissed It as a hallucination. Renouncing herself to rest, she closed her eyes and faded from the land of the living into a blissful sleep. Her pain numb and her mind dull. She could not go on any longer without rest.


End file.
